While cleaning out my closet last week, I found a pair of denim jeans, that I haven´t worn for ages. There was nothing wrong with them, but since they are quite low at the waist, I just preferred my other jeans over this one. Distressing a pair of denim jeans has been on my list for DIY projects for quite a while, so I thought that this was the perfect occasion to do it. I am acutally really loving how this project turned out and I´ve been wearing these jeans all the time since finishing the project. You can achieve the best results when you throw your jeans in the wash after distressing them. Like this, the hem will be nicely frayed etc. I used 4 different techniques to distress these jeans and I am going to show you all of them and share my thoughts about the different techniques with you as well.

The first technique that I want to share with you is using some tweezers. Cut parallel slits in the denim and then remove the blue threads, so that only the white threads remain. I feel like this is one of the most common techniques to distress denim, but it takes quite a long time to remove the blue threads and I also think that the white threads will, at some point, wear down and leave you with larger holes because the white treads are really thin.

To the honest, I am not the biggest fan of using scissors to destroy your jeans. However, if you want to achieve a raw hem, there is no other possibility than to use some scissors. To achieve that worn out look, I highly recommend throwing the jeans in the wash afterwards. Like this, the hem will look much more worn in and frayed as well.

There are two techniques on how to create slits on the knees. When you simply cut a slit with a pair of scissors, it won´t look very realistic. I prefer to only cut a small slit with some scissors and then continue to widen the slit by riping the denim apart with your hands. This one might seem really easy, however, you have to keep in mind, that it is not as easy to control as the other techniques.

Using sand paper is my personal favorite! It is really easy to use and you can control really well how much damage you do. It also makes your jeans look more worn in and I really like the look of it. To create the slit on the knee, I just rubbed the sand paper on the knee area of my jeans while wearing them. At some point, the white threads become visible and continue to rub the sand paper. I bend my knee which created the slit in the end. You can also use this technique on other parts of the jeans to soften the first layer of the denim, like in the second picture.